USA 12 Bubble Tea Brands Ranked

One of the most unique beverages in the world is known not for its taste or color but for its appearance – Bubble Tea. Despite the drink’s popularity today, its invention was a lucky accident in 1988. A Taiwanese woman named Lin Xiuhui — a product development manager at Chun Shui Tang — is enjoying her favorite dessert — fenyuan, a sweet tapioca flour.

Pudding treats. While drinking tea, she had a sudden idea and poured tapioca balls into the drink. Her co-workers love the newly upgraded drink. Since then, Boba has entered the tea menu and sparked a craze. Since its introduction to the US in the 1990s. With so many boba brands available everywhere, it can be difficult to choose just one to try, let alone which one to taste among the many flavor combinations.

12. Quickly
If you’re in a hurry and need a cup of bubble tea and a satisfying snack, Quickly is your answer to a drink and a small, filling meal. While it may not have the best quality Boba, it’s the go-to brand for satisfying cravings. Quickly is a long-established bubble tea chain established in Taiwan in 1996, known for its orange and blue logo. Currently, the company has more than 2,000 branches around the world, from Africa, Europe to North America.

11. Chatime
Another Taiwanese bubble tea brand, established in 2005. They have served millions of customers and have more than 2,500 stores in 38 countries. While this chain is trustworthy and has years of service, it’s not known for its drinks. One initiative that Sunrise Tea Tai is pursuing, however, is the establishment of Sunrise Tea Labs, which aims to make every step of the production process transparent from the tea garden to the store – the brand’s teas are grown in the central mountains of Taiwan’s Nantou County .

10. Gong cha
Another Taiwanese bubble tea brand, Gongcha, hails from the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, and its name roughly translates to “Emperor’s Gongcha.” This is another boba chain that’s been around for quite some time; it was founded by two close friends in 1996 and was one of the first to offer innovative flavors, recipes and toppings (like their mango popcorn) based on high-quality tea one of the companies. Gong Cha’s pearls or tapioca are also constantly prepared fresh throughout the day, so you can be sure there will never be stale or stale pearls in your drink.

9. Tiger Sugar
Tiger Sugar is a new brand that popped up in Taichung in 2017, but it quickly rose to the top of the international bubble tea chains. According to its website, the company is now an “undisputed hit brand,” using a “proprietary 8-hour method to cook the syrup and tapioca pearls.” Rave reviewers of New York’s Chinatown store tend to agree. Customers love the brown sugar milk tea, which has pearls and cream, and while it’s not too sweet, it’s infused with brown sugar enough to satisfy those with a sweet tooth, and all of the chain’s available black syrup drinks are relatively popular.

8. Kung Fu Tea
Kung Fu Tea is another popular bubble tea chain, and one of the few in the US. The company was founded in Queens, New York in 2010 by three entrepreneurs, Michael, Allen, and Ray. The trio had just returned from a trip to Taiwan and decided their Flushing neighborhood needed a better bubble tea shop than the one they frequented. The founders were so invested in bubble tea that they established National Bubble Tea Day on April 30, 2018.

7. Happy Lemon
Happy Lemon was launched in 2006 by Tasty Town Group, a Taiwanese tea culture company. In just 8 years, it has expanded to over 2,000 locations in 21 different countries. Happy Lemon claims to be “the first person in the world to invent rock salt cheese tea”.
If you’re not familiar with Rock Salt Cheese Tea, it’s a milk tea that has “an inch-thick layer that’s essentially a cheesecake sorbet with a lot of salt”

6. CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice
CoCo Fresh Tea Juice is another popular bubble tea chain that originated in Taiwan and is known for its quirky and cute logo. Founded by owner Tommy Hung in 1997, the brand first came to the U.S. in 2011, opening across from Baruch College. While CoCo fresh tea juices have been around for a while, the brand consistently offers solid drinks and even has an app for easy ordering and cash rewards. Overall, the brand is a reliable bubble tea shop that has been around for over 20 years and has stood the test of time.

5. The Alley
The Alley is a newer Taiwanese bubble tea company, founded in 2015 by graphic designer Mao-ting Chiu, so the brand has an instantly recognizable and unique aesthetic, including the logo of a majestic deer with large antlers. The chain has a cult following and is all the more stylish because its interiors and branding seem designed for the Instagram crowd. the
The Alley uses ingredients imported from Taiwan (except fresh fruit) and uses Taiwanese red cane sugar instead of any artificial sweeteners. Even the shorter and rounder shape of The Alley Bubble Tea Cup looks more designed and photo-friendly.
Their signature drink is the Brown Sugar Deeroica, which can’t be customized in terms of sweetness or ice—it’s tea-free and made with just dark brown sugar and milk.

4. Sharetea
Another Taiwanese bubble tea brand, Sharetea, has a unique origin story. The founder Zheng Kailong used to be a film and television director, who gave up the glamorous life of movie magic and climbed to the top of the boba empire—starting from selling tea on the street in 1992. The brand’s “bubblicious” beverages are available in more than 300 locations in more than 13 countries around the world. the
Sharetea has standard milk tea flavors, fruit tea, and ingredients such as red beans, aiyu jelly, aloe vera, and tapioca. What sets their menu apart, however, is their ice blended drinks – like milkshakes – made with Oreo, taro or strawberry ice. the

3. Boba Guys
Boba Guys is another US-based bubble tea chain that’s popular with the masses, catering to third-culture kids, millennials, and Silicon Valley workers. The label was founded in 2011 by Bin and Andrew, who previously worked for a messenger bag and accessories company. When the local boba shop closed, the two decided to start their own business while breaking down cultural barriers.
The company’s goal is to make boba more accessible. As the brand grew in popularity, it also improved the quality of its drinks and began offering alternative milks such as oat and almond. Boba Guys also offers unique bubble tea flavors such as a modern take on Korean banana milk, horchata, ube, and for the health-conscious, an Ayurveda-inspired golden milk drink that contains health-boosting ingredients like turmeric and cinnamon ingredients.

2. Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea
Yifang Taiwan Fruit Tea is a newer bubble tea chain that first opened in 2016 and has grown to over 1,000 stores worldwide in a short period of time. The brand bills itself as “not your typical bubble tea shop”. The brand has been voted London’s favorite bubble tea chain and their signature bubble tea is called Mudflip. While the chain uses the standard ingredients of tea, milk, tapioca, and syrup, its unique twist is to use richer brown cane sugar and a special cooking method to create a richer tapioca. This creates a full-bodied drink.

1. Xing Fu Tang
What sets Happiness Tang apart is its natural ingredients—the chain is known for hand-rolling its own tapioca balls without using any artificial syrups or preservatives. In most places, you can witness this laborious process in person, or watch it on YouTube. The brand’s tagline is “Taiwan’s No. 1 Busty,” and Yelp reviewers for the Flushing store tend to agree. As Yelp reviewer Azarel B. wrote, Xingfutang is “the best bubble tea in NYC. From the appearance of the thick brown syrup, I thought it would be too sweet, but it’s perfect. The boba is freshly made .It was soft and served piping hot.”